Surprising & Delighting Your Fans: How to create social media content that entertains, inspires and is never, ever boring. Presentation by Ryan Hollingsworth of the Akron-Canton Airport (Ohio, USA) for use with permission by SimpliFlying (2012). If you work in an airline or airport organisation and wish to download the slides, please email contact@simpliflying.com

1. Surprising & Delighting Your Fans: How to create social media
content that entertains, inspires and is never, ever boring!
Ryan Hollingsworth, Communications and Social Media Manager

2. Akron-Canton Airport Social Media
• 2007 - First airport in the US to use Facebook
• 2007 – One of the first airports to join Twitter
• 2012 – Hit 46,000 total likes on Facebook – In the top 5
of most-liked airports on Facebook.
• August 2012 – Most liked post – 1,300 total likes, 122
shares, 273 comments & 30,600 views
• CAK is active on Pinterest, Google+, YouTube, Flickr,
Foursquare and has 5 employee bloggers on their
website.

3. The Essence of our Brand
Price + Experience = A better way to
go.®

4. Qualities of great, surprising content:
RITE
Relevant, Interesting,
Timely, Entertaining
WHY
WHY
HOW E cubed
Entertaining, Educational,
WHAT Empowering
The Golden Circle
Start with why

5. Facebook.com/akroncantonairport
Promote airline partners
AMPLIFY BRAND
MESSAGES/VALUES
Critical mass/likes
Facebook cover photo explains the CAK brand.

6. Delta Bag Belt Surprise

7. Before Southwest landed, the countdown began!
Built excitement, pushed Southwest & surprised people!

8. Traditional + Social = MarComm Magic
• Goal: Blow Southwest away!
• Social elements: FB contest/
Southwest Super Fan Party,
TwitPics throughout events,
photobooth, photo journey to
hearts and minds of our
customers and community

9. Pie eating contest and CAKe Boss = fun surprises
OUTCOMES
•More than 1,000 likes
•Hundreds of shares
•More than 1,000 comments
•Tons of photos tell the story
•Increase brand connection
between CAK and Southwest-
ACHIEVED

10. Surprise by being timely

11. Surprise by doing the unexpected
CAK ecards were not random but
thought-out, talked about,
emailed to colleagues to see if
they “got” them, corrected, and
then posted at the perfect time.

12. Surprise on Instagram
CAK does not have an Instagram . Rather, we search for our Customers’ Instagram photos of CAK
which are taken almost every day. We post them and recognize who took the photo.

13. Surprise on Foursquare
CAK luggage tags have become a
popular Foursquare check-in special.
When it was time to introduce the new
tag design, we filmed a video reveal –
Mission Impossible style!

14. Social media surprising isn’t easy
but worth it! My advice:
• Listen. What do your fans like? Do that!
• Be entertaining, timely and unexpected.
• Put the work into it to make it great.
• Think before you post.
• Never post without photos or visuals! How
do they reflect your brand? How do they
tell the story?
• PLAN yet leave room to be spontaneous!

15. THANK YOU!